2003-04-27

 
Email to Miriam Greenberg.
...and here is an email I sent to Miriam, who has just started a blog, Poor Word Choice, in response to her inexpressibility.

while it is a joy to achieve things through publicly releasing yourself (yes, surrender to the moment), perhaps you should focus more on the joyful discoveries you find in the world. a blog is powerful in two respects: for one thing, you may broadcast to your putative network of acquaintances (and yet more, thanks to google and links and associations) and thus inform & document your progress in the world and in your life. a second, bolder motive is the process of discovery and experience. What resonates with you may seem obvious, but in retrospect (or removed from your immediate experience, as we outsiders see it) your observations are tools and language for communication, action -- dialogue. If I shut myself in the world, I will only learn a handful of things and thus our individual worth may allow us to become selfish. But bouncing off the vantage of others can often grant new insight. I often take long gasps between my own proclamations, often to lessen the deluge of information (thus making my body of work more navigable by others and by myself), and for this, I understand your editing and shyness... But miss miriam (don't tear out any more pages!!!), you have not said anything yet, but I know you have hordes of thought in your head. release it! open the sluice-gates of your word reserves and let the world know your pathways. the world may not blink, but at least you will be able to know what you have accomplished and thus be able to help others better. and as for your "poor word choice" dilemma of steering towards expectation, I know the drama. I have contemplated scrapping this whole message because of the lofty diction, incomprehensible to many (even to myself at times). Here's a parable... I'm taking up watercoloring lately, and I'm trying to letter some titles for some bookbinding projects. I've been looking at some arabic art books and studying the way that arabic calligraphy appears. My friend here tells me that I should only use the books for inspiration and not as a blueprint to copy from. He says, when we copy we are imitating and thus not expressing ourselves. There is no such thing as "bad art" or mistakes in art. He says that there is something divine about the way someone holds a brush that makes whatever comes off it incredibly unique, an expression of the person inside, perhaps similar to the way a handwriting presents itself. There is a pattern to every person, but the rules of the pattern only apply to one person, and not across persons. Remember that there are no rules, and if you want to write in capitals in one instance and JUxxxTAPOSE some SMALLCAPS in another instance, so be it. be a genderfuck, don't be fallen upon when you dance in the rain. be proud to be yourself and remember, there are no rules; there are only conventions. when you follow the conventions you are ordinary (that may be of appeal to you and no one can take away your guilty pleasures either). but if you ask me, normal is boring.
posted by MM 11:16 PM